Radioland Murders

Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones. Smith's father, Kenneth, was born in Tow Law,... County Durham, and worked at a coal mine during the Second World War looking after the pit ponies. After the war he moved to London, and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned a greengrocer's store in Chiswick, West London. When the government legalised high street betting, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick. Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick, over the shop. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick and the private Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith and New College, Oxford. While at Oxford University he produced The Tempest, and this led to his joining the Royal Court Theatre production team in London, and then Bristol Old Vic. He was also associate director of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre for two years. Later, he directed a theatre production of "Not in Front of the Audience".
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Charles Martin Smith is an American film actor, writer, and director. He is known for his roles in American Graffiti, Never Cry Wolf, Starman, and The Untouchables. Smith was born in Van Nuys, California. His father, Frank Smith, was a film cartoonist and animator, while his uncle Paul J. Smith... was an animator as well as a director for the Walter Lantz Studios. Smith spent three years of his youth in Paris where his father managed the English-language branch of a French animation studio. He received his high school diploma from Grover Cleveland High School, Reseda, California. He attended California State University, Northridge and was awarded a B.A. in Theatre. Smith was discovered by a talent agent while acting in a school play, Man of La Mancha. After a few years of working in film and television, he landed the role of Terry "The Toad" Fields in George Lucas's 1973 film American Graffiti, a role he would reprise in the film's 1979 sequel, More American Graffiti. In 1974 he starred with Ron Howard again in The Spikes Gang, filmed in Spain, along with Lee Marvin and Gary Grimes; and in 1978 he earned a starring role in Cotton Candy, directed by Ron Howard.
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